Luciest leeedb



L. LERDE. PIPE GOUPLING.

N0. 330.134. Patented' NOV. 10, 1885.

PATENT Orrtcs.

Lucien Lennon, oF PARIS, FRANCE.

PEPE-COUPLING.

eersel-rasanten forming pari. of Letters Patent No. 330,134, datedNovember 10,1885. Application filed July S, 1885. SerialLNo. 170,960. (omodel.)

To all? whom i may concern: i

Beit knownthat l, L. Luizhnn, ofthe city of Paris, France, engineer,have invented new and useful Improvements in and relating to lCouplingor Connecting Tubes, chieti; de-

' rubber or the like for establishing a connec tion between theair-pipes of'adjacent carv yriagcs of a train, which liexible tubescrack.' 'or' split, lthereby ceasing to operate properly.

To this end the said invention consists, es-

' sentia-hy, in the employment, in lieu of ilexible tubcs,as described7ot' ,metal tubes, each of which hasat each of its extremities aball-and-scckctor other universal ]oint, pro

vided with means for rendering it perfectly tight, therebyv enabling thetube to yield as desired.

In order to enable the said invention to be uuderst'ood,l haveillustrated it, by way of example,in the accompanying drawings,inwhichcarries a hollow sphere or ball, c, provided with a shank, b, andthe other a socket, d,

't'or receiving a ball, c', which forms with it a 4 'or ball ctits; intoa socket, d', which/resemjoint at `this extremity. The hollow spherebles the socket d, and is attached to the fixed air-pipe k of thecarriage, while the socket d receives the ball c', attached to thehalf-coupling It. It is evident that this arrangement of the balls andsockets is not essential and can be reversed-,that is to say, the tube acan be provided with a ball at each end or with asocket at each end, thexed pipe and the half-coupling being then provided with correspondingsockets or balls.

` The spheres or balls c c are provided with- June,4 1885.

screws f, having passages through them longitudinally. Each of thesescrews holds between it and the sphere one edge of a covering ormembrane, g,l of caoutchouc or any other suitable elastic material. Thismembrane g extends over about half the sphere or ball and enablesvperfectly-tight joints to be obtained' between the tube a and the partto be connected. The membrane is corrugated in order to allow forstretching without undue strain when the ball and socket are moved toextreme adjustments.

ln order to retain the spheres or balls 'c in their sockets, the latterare tappedat their extremities to receive .the screw-collars 1, ".vhichyalso serve to hold the outer edges et' the membranes g. Each of thecollars t' is provided with an orifice of sufficiently large size topermit the shank b of the ball to move freely to compensate for theundulations or movcnmits ct' the vehicles.

rlhis arrangement ot'jointed tubes can also be applied to other pipesbesides those for railwaybrakes. lhe half-coupling inof which theordinary type is shown, as well as the tube k, may be of any suitableconstruction.

l claim- 1. The combinatiomwith ahollow ball-andsOcket, connection, of aflexible membrane, connected at one edge to the interior of the socket,and connected at its opposite edge to the exterior of the ball withinthe socket, substantially asset l'orth.

2. The combination,with a hollow ball-andsockct connection, ot' acorrugated flexible ni'embranc secured at its opposite ends to the balland'sockct, respectively, substantially as set forth.

3. The combinatiomwith the hollowfsocket d, having the collar t', andthe hollow ball c', having the tubular screw f, of the membrane g,connected with the 'ball and socket by the screw and ring, substantiallyas set forth.

The foregoing specification of -my improveL ments in and relating tocoupling or connecting tubes, chiefly designed for railway-brakeapparatus, signed by4 me this 22d day of LUGIEN LERDE. Witnesses;

Rozen M. HooPER,

ALBERT MOREAU.

